The Introverted Detective

 I have heard mixed reviews on the Barbie movie, only to come to the conclusion that I would like to actually watch it myself rather than blindly believe reviewers. I have loved books others have hated. I have loved TV shows that others don't like. We all have different opinions on different media and books. Let's talk about the pros and cons of legitimately reading reviews on anything.  Courtesy of Business 2 Community While it is beneficial to know whether a product is a scam (Amazon reviews) and know how much nudity is in that TV show that looks kind of interesting (IMDB Parents Guide), not everyone sees the same genre as great or the same tropes as awful. Yes, you want to know whether you could be running into sex scenes you didn't ask for, but some plotlines that aren't x-rated may be loved or hated, garnering mixed reviews. Do you believe every review you read? Why You Should Be Checking Reviews Let's use Guardians of the Galaxy 3 as an example. I love the fir...

 I was watching booktubers (Youtubers who talk about books) on Youtube and came upon a reading challenge entitled "Read it or unhaul it" on several booktuber channels. I have a long list of unread books on my shelves that need to stay and be loved or leave because they take up too much space. Let's just jump into it with both feet.   I picked three books at random to read. The rules go as follows: 1. I pick the book based on how they are numbered in my Excel sheet using a random number generator. 2. I read the three books and review them in this blog. 3. I decide to keep or unhaul them based on those reviews.  Ready? Let's go!  Book 1 - The Murder House by James Patterson / David Ellis       I started this book and loved the first two chapters, then they abruptly changed over to a character that lacked personality. I didn't care about the character, so after nine chapters I was not enjoying myself. I DNFed (did not finish) it. It hit my unhau...

 This last blog is where I conclude this Nancy Drew Replay Series. Without further adieu, I continue into the two dossiers and Midnight in Salem.  Courtesy of adria.ign.com These three games are in this blog because they are a different play style than any other Nancy Drew Herinteractive games out there. Dossiers are the quick-play version of Nancy Drew and MID (Midnight in Salem) is a category all by itself due to being a different system and play style. There is a lot to say, but we'll put the dossiers first because they were released before MID.  Dossiers - Resorting to Danger and Lights Camera Curses The first dossier released is Lights Camera Curses and the second was Resorting to Danger. I had to play the first on the spare Lenovo because my HP wouldn't let it launch, but would let it install (much like games 16-20 because it was most likely released around that time). Resorting to Danger was fine for my HP, though, so it must have been released after the 20th game....

 This is part three of me replaying the whole Nancy Drew Herinteractive series of games.  Courtesy of Pinterest Spoiler alert! I have to talk about the games to prove what era they are. You have been warned.  Hello again! I promise this series won't be ten million segments. This last era (minus the dossiers and Midnight in Salem- MID) is the only one left. There will be one more post about the dossiers and MID because they are categories by themselves. Otherwise, I'm almost done.  Drama Era - Captive Curse to Sea of Darkness Let the relationship issues begin! Ned can be super helpful (Alibi) or cause all sorts of drama (Captive). This also begins the Francy (Frank and Nancy) hints, which actually come straight from the super mysteries books. Nothing new here, just a less helpful Ned at times and a bit less separation from Nancy's relationship reality. The drama is now built into the plot, thus it is unavoidable. That has been happening slowly since the last era. That...

 Welcome back to my Nancy Drew Replay! If you didn't see the first part, go to my previous blog post  to read the first part. I am analyzing the eras of Nancy Drew Herinteractive games based on my playthrough by the oldest to the newest release date. I'll let the first part speak for me. Let's dive in!  Courtesy of Pinterest *Spoiler warning! I have spoilers in these blogs for the purpose of proving trends.* The Puzzle Heavy Era - White Wolf to Shadow at Waters Edge Here is where my HP laptop, unlike my Dell laptop and the spare Lenovo laptop, didn't want to cooperate. This is the exact point where White Wolf installed with no problem but only launched for two seconds. The first dossier did the same thing. Apparently, this is an issue with HP computers. I tried the "changing 0 to 2 window setting in configuration files" fix with no luck. I then tried the compatibility 640-480 resolution mode with the same rotten luck. I just switched to playing on the Lenovo. ...

Hello fellow nerds and loyal blog readers! I personally replayed all my Nancy Drew Herinteractive collection and re-experienced them all - every single one. Without further adieu, I give you my observations after doing so.  Courtesy of Herinteractive Starting with Secrets Can Kill (and the remastered one) and going straight through to Midnight In Salem, I played them all. I love them all to different degrees and for different reasons because I am a Nancy Drew nerd and own them all. I actually pre-ordered some of them to acquire it (like Ransom of the Seven Ships) and got most of them for Christmas until we had to wait for Midnight In Salem and they stopped making them so frequently. I had to get downloads of some games because I couldn't play them on my college laptop. I don't think you need any more proof of my nerdyness.  *Be aware that you will find spoilers in this series of blogs. In order to make my point about trends in games I have to say these. You have been warned. *...

Lighthouse keepers were known to go mad quite often, but it wasn't just being alone too long. No, it was the mercury. There are some horror stories out there.  4th order (mercury floated) Fresnel Lens  Photo Courtesy of TripAdvisor In this blog today we're going to be talking about the perils of lighthouse keepers, people who had a hard job to begin with - even without the mercury poisoning that happened. It wasn't out of the question to have a lighthouse keeper go mad every once in a while. Go mad, in this instance, is not rage; it refers to someone going crazy. There are even stories of a man being trapped with his dead fellow lighthouse keeper because of a storm not allowing authorities to come closer. Even worse, the arm slightly outside the coffin seemed to wave at him in the wind. It was bad. Suicides were also common occurrences here.  What was it like keeping a lighthouse? Lonely, that's what. You are at the beck and call of keeping the lights on and everything ...